Shades of Grey

I just finished with my Sunday morning message entitled "The Sounds of Silence" and I know that somebody in the service on that day is really going to get something out of it. Only one problem. I'm struggling to believe, receive and practice what I am about to preach.

Does that make me a fake? Am I a hypocrite? Challenging questions with no easy answers because it is not always as black and white as it seems. There are grey areas. At least there are in my life. Those grey areas, as much as I would rather not admit their existence, represent seasons and shades that need to be wrestled with, examined, and investigated.

I wish I could say with all confidence and certainty that I do nothing but practice what I preach and preach what I practice. Truth be told there are shades of grey. For every moment that captures the colors of a perfectly worked out truth, there are as many moments that are reflected in shades of grey. Some things are neither here nor there but rather somewhere in-between. It's in those in-between times and in-between places that you can feel like a fake because you're not there yet.

The deception that so many buy into is that unless they have mastered the truth they have committed themselves to, they must be faking it. Don't buy into that lie today. We are all a work in progress and there will undoubtably be some times and seasons colored in shades of grey.

Time Flies When...

Three weeks. It's been three weeks since my last blog. Three weeks. Where did the time go? Three weeks isn't a long time in the big scheme of things and yet it's long enough for me to once again, admit that time flies.

Ordinarily you follow that up with 'when you're having fun' and for the most part that is true. But the converse of that is true as well. It seems that regardless of the season you find yourself in, time still flies.

Time flies when you're having fun. Time flies when you're stuck in a rut. Oh, it may feel that time is standing still when you are stuck in that rut but you will discover that once you get out, if you get out, that time did anything but stand still. Life passes us by in the twinkling of an eye. One day you're still dreaming of what the future holds, the next day you're looking back on what might have been. Where are you today? Who are you today?

Regret is a silent but deadly killer. If you ask most people about their regrets, so many will speak of not their failed attempts but rather their failure to attempt to challenge the status quo. I wonder what I will say tomorrow about what I did or didn't attempt to do today. I wonder. All I know for sure is that time flies.